Eggplant.place

20d

👻 Witches, vampires, cosmic skulls, and a planet with a terrifying secret...

The universe has some seriously spooky places!

From a nebula brewing newborn stars to a lunar crater trapped in eternal darkness, discover the science behind 11 of the cosmos' creepiest sights.

🎃 Sign up for the SETI Institute's email newsletter to explore "11 Spookiest Places in the Universe", a Halloween treat written by SETI Institute scientist Simon Steel.

https://www.seti.org/outreach/seti-institute-library/11-spookiest-places/

#Halloween #Astronomy #Science

Tablet displaying a space-themed magazine cover titled "11 Spookiest Places in the Universe," flanked by two open spreads showing swirling galaxy images and article headings that evoke eerie, otherworldly locations.

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18d

NEW: A bird flu outbreak has been raging uncontrolled on a Utah mink farm for two months.

Flu experts fear it could spark a devastating human pandemic.

But officials haven’t acted — instead prioritizing the financial interests of the fur trade.
https://www.propublica.org/article/bird-flu-mink-farm-utah-human-risk?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#News #BirdFlu #H5N1 #Utah #Pandemic #PublicHealth #Health #Science

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22d

Celebrated biologist David Haskell explains how flowering plants quickly transformed life on Earth when they arrived 250 million years ago, and why nearly all life depends on them. Call it petal power on this week's Big Picture Science.

Listen here: https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/our-floral-planet

#podcast #science

Vibrant meadow bouquet of bright blue cornflowers (bachelor’s buttons) rising above pink, yellow, and white wildflowers, evoking a cheerful summer scene.

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18d

In 1687, Isaac Newton published the book that explained gravity, with Edmond Halley paying for its printing; after passing through a British lord's family, a first edition sold for Rs 5.49 crore in 2026.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/people/in-1687-isaac-newton-published-the-book-that-explained-gravity-with-edmond-halley-paying-for-its-printing-after-passing-through-a-british-lords-family-a-first-edition-sold-for-rs-5-49-crore-in-2026/articleshow/135116397.cms

Philosophiae Naturalis by Newton at PG (Latin and English):
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28233
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76404

#books #science #physics #mathematics

Title page of Principia, first edition (1687).

The title page of Isaac Newton’s “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica,” printed in London in 1687 by Joseph Streater for the Royal Society. It carries Samuel Pepys’s imprimatur dated 5 July 1686, in ruled boxes.

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34d

Johns mind and the future

https://store.steampowered.com/app/522220/InMind_2_VR/

#steam #MedicalVR #mediVR #science

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17d

In the spirit of this comic, I armed myself with COVID and flu antibodies this week.

#comic #cartoon #humor #health #apocalypse #food #survival #science

Real-life prepping

Arm yourself with antibodies

Covid and flu shots

Today I’m stockpiling ammo against biological agents!

Employ tactical body protection

Clik!

Utilize radiation-cloaking technology

Splorp!

Consume high-grade life fuel for battle readiness

No plaque is stopping my hemoglobin Army!

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47d

Aliens,

Should you wish to understand humanity's complex technological culture, watch some documentaries on other great apes.

We are (mostly) no different.

Bellicose males kill & eat the most and decide who else eats and mates (w/ them, ideally).

Females and youngsters live in a perverse state of protection and mortal fear of their protectors.

Any challenger gets crushed until he can be the apex predator.

That's about it.

Oh, and we hate being reminded we're apes.

#humanity #science

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16d

Never Mind Ancient Authorities, Do the Experiment!

In the 16th century, science was rooted in studying and debating the works of ancient authorities like Aristotle and Galen—until Francis Bacon arrived to challenge this paradigm.

by Joe Schwarcz

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/history-general-science/never-mind-ancient-authorities-do-experiment

Francis Bacon at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/296

#books #literature #philosophy #science #education

Francis Bacon’s Monument in St. Michael’s Church.

Title: Bacon and Shakespeare

Author: Albert Frederick Calvert

An engraving of a monument to Francis Bacon, per the inscription “Franciscus Bacon Baro de Verulam.” A seated statue in a ruff, hat and doublet rests his head on one hand inside an arched niche, above Latin inscriptions on the pedestal.

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16d

As ever, Randall has me pondering.

https://xkcd.com/3315/

So is there ½ heavy water where only one hydrogen is deuterium and not both?

Is there extra heavy water with tritium?

I mean is there ...

- Water 1+1
- Half heavy water 1+2
- Heavy water 2+2
- Lopsided heavy water 1+3
- A bit heavier water 2+3
- Very heavy water 3+3

And this is ignoring all combinations with "ium" (electron spinning with no proton or neutron) as Randal proposes.

#science #deuterium #tritium

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12d

The Colour That Revolutionized Chemistry

William Henry Perkin's discovery of mauve had an impact far beyond the fashion industry.

by Joe Schwarcz

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/medical-history-general-science/colour-revolutionized-chemistry

Books about Color (including Goethe's Theory of Colours) at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/3066

#books #colours #chemistry #science #syntetic_dyes #historyofscience

Perkin in 1906

Unknown author - Scanned photograph from F. J. Moore's book, A History of Chemistry (1918). - Popular Science Monthly Volume 69.

A black-and-white studio portrait of an elderly man with swept-back white hair and a full, bushy white beard. He wears a dark jacket and white collar, and gazes calmly at the camera. The dark background and soft lighting emphasize his weathered, dignified face.

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14d

Were Two Ancient Chinese Astronomers Beheaded for Failing to Predict an Eclipse in 2134 B.C.E.? The Story May Be a Myth, but It Underscores the Real Risks of Interpreting Celestial Events

Experts say that an oft-circulated anecdote about two royal astronomers drunkenly failing to foresee an eclipse thousands of years ago contains hints of truth

by Georgia Michelman

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/were-two-chinese-astronomers-were-beheaded-for-failing-to-predict-an-eclipse-2134-bce-the-story-may-be-a-myth-but-it-underscores-the-real-risks-of-interpreting-celestial-events-180989715/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_content=20261021-daily&lctg=93133550&user_id=19f2988141aeef1ce3da2871b25613801e24297faaf654001575521d8c39910f

Books about Solar eclipses at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/21048

#books #astronomy #science #solareclipse

Solar eclipse of October 22, -2137 BC

A globe map centered on Asia and Australia showing a solar eclipse path: a thick red band of totality sweeps from central Asia across China and the Pacific. Blue and green contour lines and pink outlines mark partial-eclipse zones and timing.

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14d

Perfect #Halloween discovery: dead star and planetary bodies.

Our VLT has found a rare disc of debris around a dead star, a glimpse into the possible fate of our Solar System.

This debris consists of the leftovers of planets that once orbited the star. As the Sun-like star entered the final stages of its life to become the white dwarf J1328−1450, it expanded and shed its outer layers, engulfing and destroying nearby planets.

📷 ESO/L. Calçada

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

Illustration of a white star surrounded by two concentric brown discs, with a gap between them. There are two small bright points orbiting the star, one embedded in each disc.

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15d

2000 tonnes of steel sliding on a few microns of oil!

Our Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) was tilted for the first time in Oct 2026. To point anywhere in the southern sky the telescope needs to rotate on two different axes. A few months ago it rotated on its vertical axis for the first time. Now, tilting on its horizontal axis is another step in the right direction.

More: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/potw2643a/

📹 ESO/Cimolai/Apical/G. Vecchia

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science #engineering

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14d

New dwarf planet just dropped.

For now, it's called 2026 ED138. It appears to be ~1000 kilometers (600 miles) wide. If confirmed, that would make it a dwarf planet about half the size of Pluto.

https://rubinobservatory.org/news/rubin-first-dwarf-planet-candidate #space #science #astronomy #nature

This image shows the orbital pathway of newly discovered dwarf planet candidate 2026 ED138 (ED138), as observed by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory. This image is a composite of multiple images captured by Rubin between 4 March and 11 July 2026 at intervals indicated by the teal circles. ED138 is visible at the center of each circle.

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11d

How a Secret Vote by U.N. Scientists Legitimized Carbon Capture and Skewed Decades of Climate Policy
---

A U.N. report concluded carbon capture could offset fossil fuels’ effect on climate change. Two decades later, the process has failed to meaningfully scale up, and it’s proving hard to take the promises back.
https://www.propublica.org/article/carbon-capture-storage-fossil-fuel-sally-benson?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#News #Climate #ClimateChange #Environment #Oil #FossilFuels #UnitedNations #Science #Research

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13d

A Black Swan Event is an occurence that is unlikely, unexpected, and carries massive impact

The phrase derives from the Roman poet Juvenal. The Romans never saw a black swan

But in 1697 Dutch explorers found some in Australia

Maybe we should rename it a Green Star Event

A green star is impossible

The way black body radiation works with rising temperature the color green never shows

So…

Ah, fuck

"Astronomers discover the 1st ever green star"

https://www.space.com/astronomy/stars/astronomers-discover-the-1st-ever-green-star-a-cosmic-zombie-just-in-time-for-halloween

#astronomy #science

a representation of a green star (not real. well the picture is not real, a green star is apparently real now)

from Mark A. Garlick, University of Warwick

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11d

A 14-year-long retrospective cohort study of almost 960,000 hospital inpatients with acute medical conditions (congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, atrial fibrillation, COPD, pneumonia, stroke, and GI tract bleeding) found that those who were treated by female physicians had significantly lower 30-day mortality rates and readmission rates.

Summary: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-10-hospitalized-medical-patients-fare-female.html

Paper: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2856025

#Science #Health #Medicine #GenderDifferences #Hospitalization

2026-10-hospitalized-medical-patients-fare-female.html

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10d

Just boosted a post about scientific paper reviews by @frincon - wanted to quote it so I could say “Read the replies, they’re just as interesting” but the post disallowed quotes, which is annoying.

#Science

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10d

Mystery of 60-Second Fluctuations in Power Grids Solved via @robalex https://lobste.rs/s/qwou15 #science
https://www.fz-juelich.de/en/news/archive/press-release/2026/mystery-of-60-second-fluctuations-in-power-grids-solved

qwou15

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8d

Those bright yellow streaks are four artificial stars, created up in the atmosphere by laser beams rising from our Very Large Telescope in #Chile. By monitoring how these "stars" twinkle and quickly reshaping a thin, flexible mirror we can correct in real time the blurring effect of our atmosphere.

But why do the artificial stars in this picture look elongated rather than point sources?

Find out: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2644a/

📷 ESO/A. Berdeu

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

A dark, star-scattered sky fills the frame. Slightly left of centre sits a small cluster of short, bright orange parallel streaks, with fainter beams of the same colour trailing away towards the lower left corner. To the right of centre, a small, elongated galaxy glows pale white, tilted diagonally. A bright orange star stands out in the upper left part of the image, and smaller white and reddish points of light are spread evenly across the whole background.

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44d

🧠 ICYMI: When stress hits, the #brain hands control over to the #amygdala, setting off automatic fight, flight, or freeze reactions before logical thinking can step in.

An #animation from the nonprofit #TREC outlines how our #nervoussystem processes sudden pressure and why physical reactions precede words.

👉 https://seethis.tv/post/your-brains-fight-flight-or-freeze-response

#stress #anatomy #anxiety #biology #body #emotions #health #howthingswork #humanbody #education #learning #mentalhealth #neurobiology #neuroscience #psychology #science #teaching #tksst #video

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9d

Pulling Alfred Russel Wallace from Darwin's shadow

by Steve Harris

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c674pv2ej29yo

Books by Wallace at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/955

#books #evolution #biology #science #zoology #entomology #anthropology

Wallace in 1895.

A vintage black-and-white studio portrait of an elderly man with white hair, round wire-rimmed glasses and a long white beard. He sits cross-legged in a wooden armchair, wearing a dark velvet jacket, waistcoat and tie, with a white handkerchief in his pocket. A fern frond peeks in at right.

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169d

How Sir Isaac Newton Predicted The World Will Change In 2060

Sir Isaac Newton predicted that the world would end in 2060, but never published these studies during his lifetime.

by Mike Cohen

https://www.thecollector.com/how-isaac-newton-predicted-end-of-the-world/

Books by Newton at PG (including Newton's Principia):
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/6288

#Books #Science #History

ISAAC NEWTON
From the picture by Kneller, 1689, now at Cambridge

An oil portrait of Newton in his mid-forties with long, flowing silver-grey hair, wearing a dark brown robe over a white shirt. He is turned slightly, gazing directly at the viewer. One hand rests on a surface. The background is dark and muted, in the style of late 17th-century English portraiture.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Isaac_Newton

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7d

Book spotlight: Testing Einstein

A new open-access book examines the long history of efforts to confirm and measure effects predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

https://www.aip.org/history/testing-einstein?mcid=81301bd1cc&utm_source=AIP_newsletter&utm_medium=email

Books by Einstein at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1630

#books #science #physics #relativity #solareclipse

Chart for Solar eclipse.

A globe map labeled “SE1922Sep21T” showing the path of the total solar eclipse of 21 September 1922. A blue band with ovals sweeps from Africa across the Indian Ocean to Australia. Blue magnitude lines, green time lines, and points P1–P4 mark the greatest eclipse.

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1y

What do you mean OR? 🤔
I can broil in existential dread and plot a fantasy series at the same time. 😂 Luckily I don't make mistakes, at least not any I'm willing to admit too 😜

#FantasySeries #VS #ExistentialDread
#FantasyMemes #Fantasy #Memes #Humor #Humour
#Low #High #Epic #Science #Comedic
#Book #Books #Novel #Novels
#Mastobooks #BooksofMastodon #Bookstodon #Bookworm #Bookwyrm #Bookstodon #BookLove

Post by C.G. Drews

Apparently some people go to bed and just...sleep???
They don't plot a 7-book epic fantasy series or softly broil in existential dread or replay every mistake they ever made???
And then they wake up [checks notes] REFRESHED? | just. It sounds a bit fake.

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